Timing of release of 3 Americans in Cairo is unclear

Three American students who were arrested and accused of throwing firebombs at security forces in the ongoing protests in Cairo have been ordered freed by an Egyptian court.

But when they will be released from a Cairo police station is unclear, said attorney Theodore Simon, retained by the family of 19-year-old Gregory Porter, a Drexel University student from Glenside.

"We're taking all steps possible to secure their release," he said Thursday afternoon. "When I talked to Greg on the phone, he was calm, thankful, and continued to be hopeful it would happen sooner rather than later."

Porter, Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student, and Derrik Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student, were arrested Monday and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police from a rooftop within the American University compound as protesters clashed with police outside.

Protests have engulfed Cairo's Tahrir Square over the last six days as tens of thousands called for the end of the military rule that has followed the ouster of Egypt's longtime president, Hosni Mubarak, in February.

Porter, Gates, and Sweeney were among a handful of students in American University's study-abroad program who had joined in the protest, a university spokeswoman said.

Egyptian prosecutors had asked the court for a 15-day extension to further investigate the trio's actions, but the three-judge panel declined that request and ordered the students released. Prosecutors have assured Simon's co-counsel in Egypt that they do not plan to appeal the decision.

But the release could be a few days off. Al-Hijra, the Islamic New Year holiday, which begins officially Saturday, is complicating matters, Simon said.

The court ruling Thursday came on the same day the Egyptian military apologized for the dozens of protesters who have been killed and the thousands injured by security forces since the demonstrations began.

Sweeney's mother, Joy Sweeney, said she was elated at the news of her son's impending release.

"I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him," she said. "I'm sure that he'll put a life-lesson learning experience into a positive story."

Porter's family declined to comment through their attorney.

Online posts from the three students, as well as descriptions offered by their relatives, paint a picture of idealistic college students caught up in the pro-democracy movement that has swept through North Africa and the Middle East this year.

"We were throwing rocks and one guy accidently threw his phone," Gates wrote in a posting on his Twitter account last weekend.

Simon, a Philadelphia lawyer who represented Amanda Knox, the U.S. student acquitted by an Italian appeals court last month on charges of killing her roommate, declined to address the accusations against Porter and the other students.

"The only thing I'm concerned with is the execution and manifestation of the court order," he said.

The arrest of the three students caught international attention earlier this week after Egyptian TV stations broadcast footage of them lined up with Molotov cocktails set in front of them in what appeared to be a news conference.

U.S. State Department officials could not be reached for comment. The U.S. consul general in Cairo met with the students Wednesday.

At Drexel, officials have spent the week trying to piece together the events transpiring across the Atlantic. But they breathed a sigh of relief Thursday morning as reports of the students' impending release came in.

"It's great news. We're delighted," university spokeswoman Lori Doyle said.